And with that, Balthacarius pressed a button, dispatching three wheelstick-weilding robots on small levitating scooters, which promptly went *poof* into the future, and a moment later reappeared with one Tornater the Bunliubnite in tow

Just like that? Wheelstick are very convincing, apparently.

It was momentary in the timeline in which the story is being told; I don't think I thought much about how much time it would be from the three wheelstickbots' points of view.

Order of the Sillies, Honoris Causam - bestowed by charlie_grumbles on NP 859 * OTTscar winner: Wordsmith - bestowed by yappobiscuts and the OTT on NP 1832 * Ecclesiastical Calendar of the Order of the Holy Contradiction * Please help addams if you can. She needs all of us.

I have a favor to ask. My father passed away last night, and my family is having trouble with how to fill in the blank for "Industry" on the death certificate. We have mathematician for "Occupation." Some info:

He was a mathematical physicist.He was a mathematics professor for decades, and also worked at NASA for a couple of summers. He spent a year on sabbatical working with Roger Penrose.In the second half of his career, he worked for government contracting agencies working with the defense department. In particular, he worked on satellites and optics. Missile defense. SDI.

We can list two "industries" if we want ... I think he was most proud of his work at NASA (early) and his defense work (later).

Any ideas? Perhaps National Missile Defense or Academics/Missile Defense?

Thank you,Buffygirl

PS (EDIT): He was a graduate student who helped to develop the Kerr-Schild Metric.

Hello, buffygirl! It's nice to see you here. Sorry that it is for such an **dish reason.I'm joining lmjb1964's hugging.

buffygirl wrote:He was a mathematical physicist.He was a mathematics professor for decades, and also worked at NASA for a couple of summers. He spent a year on sabbatical working with Roger Penrose.In the second half of his career, he worked for government contracting agencies working with the defense department. In particular, he worked on satellites and optics. Missile defense. SDI.[…]PS (EDIT): He was a graduate student who helped to develop the Kerr-Schild Metric.

Baobabs. As you can guess I know about the Kerr metric and its expression in Kerr-Schild coordinates. It's no light fare.

Redundant: I'm impressed.

buffygirl wrote:We can list two "industries" if we want ... I think he was most proud of his work at NASA (early) and his defense work (later).

Any ideas? Perhaps National Missile Defense or Academics/Missile Defense?

I'm sorry that I cannot really help here. I'm fighting a lot with German bureaucracy, but I don't know much about the US one.

That said, I like AluisioASG's (Hi!) suggestion to put things short and crisp. Maybe saying just “Space Research” and “National Defense” tells more about the greatness of his achievements than long descriptions.

Hope you're not passing through like a comet, but coming back like a meteor. Well, not exactly like a meteor, but you know... sticking around.

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. Please include me in the hugmolpies, for you and also the rest of your family. Losing a loved one is hard no matter how it happens, and it always happens differently. He seems to have been a pretty big tree though. As to your favor... I looked through JuneBug's discovery, and (as you indicated) it gives a lot of insight as to why they ask (and thus, what to answer). It was a surprise to me too, to see what they are looking for, and why.

It's wonderful to see you, even under these circumstances. The voldeframe is how we continue to experience how important a person really is to us, and it is necessary in order to transition to the new beginning that every ending represents. I hope your transition, poignant though it may be, leads to a molpish new perspective on who he was, and who he was to you.

Smopu hvalum de nuvium dict, le immen avum amuashi.

Jose

Order of the Sillies, Honoris Causam - bestowed by charlie_grumbles on NP 859 * OTTscar winner: Wordsmith - bestowed by yappobiscuts and the OTT on NP 1832 * Ecclesiastical Calendar of the Order of the Holy Contradiction * Please help addams if you can. She needs all of us.

Sorry for barging in like this, but I just realized that the OTC will be 1000 comics old around New Year's. Double party! I just realized I can't count: it'll be 900 comics old. Still, double party! Can an OTTologer give the exact date of the nonacentennium? And the millenium that will take place in less than a year?

Unrelatedly, what's happened to the post pace? Two pages ago it was August. Is my memory deceiving me or has the rate of new messages gone down significantly compared to two years ago?

900 comics old? Baobabs, how the Time flies! We should definitely plan a millennium celebration. (I'm trying to think of a more accurate word than millennial, but can't come up with one.) I suggest an OTTer meetup.

Yes, the post rate has definitely slowed down, but it keeps plugging along. Every now and then there will be a little burst of activity, though.

ETA so it seems our bsta characters, and the building they're in, have somehow been transported to the moon base. How? And is there any connection with that and the game-in-a-game where the robot put the box into the Tardis-y thing, and the Tardis-y disappeared? Maybe it's ended up in the same place.

In the physics story, I think now that the hatted planet was just a buffygirl summons, which was very successful.

Edit 2 to remove my many typos from posting from a tiny screen, including change "hatred" to "hatted," even though I kind of like "hatred planet." Of course, I don't know why a hatred planet would be a summons for buffygirl.

There are 3 othercomics per wip; the current one is #2054, so #2090 would be 36 later, which is 12 wips, or the 28th December in outsider reckoning. To get to 2190 (which is 1190 + 1000) you'd have to go another 33 wips plus one more, meaning 3 dips more because you'd be skipping the weepend from a Davéandix to a Randix. You can look at a calendar and double-check but I think it comes out to the 19th August.

Edit: Of course, the OTA acts in mysterious ways, particularly around April Fools, so this prediction may be a little off. Or totally mustard.

Eric Blake, NHC wrote:I clearly drew the small straw in having to make Leslie's forecast tonight because this situation is resulting in one of the largest guidance spreads I have seen, about 1000 miles on day 3 and over 2000 miles at day 5.

Hello from the basement. It's been a while. I've graduated university in the time since I have posted here and started a math PhD. It's been all right, but predictably hectic. And of course, my interests move on--even though ironically it took me three yips from the time I found Time to the time I started posting in the OTT.

That said, my thoughts to those facing the carnage near the Gulf of Mexico, and I hope Leslie doesn't stick around for another month and give the forecasters memories of 2005, which they already seem to be hinting at...

And in a perfect demonstration of the title text, M's track forecast 3 days out was off by 30 or so miles, but the intensity by 55-75 mph (whoops).

thunk wrote:even though ironically it took me three yips from the time I found Time to the time I started posting in the OTT

You were just Waiting For It.

The sea does what it wants. I hope it wants to be molpish. The wind.... now that's something we don't have much experience of in the OTC. Ch*rp!

Jose

Order of the Sillies, Honoris Causam - bestowed by charlie_grumbles on NP 859 * OTTscar winner: Wordsmith - bestowed by yappobiscuts and the OTT on NP 1832 * Ecclesiastical Calendar of the Order of the Holy Contradiction * Please help addams if you can. She needs all of us.

Hi, thunk! Good to see you. Congratulations on graduating and on starting your math PhD. I'm sure that has you doing lots of RUNning, and occasionally some Waiting for It as well.

It sounds like both the sea and the wind are doing what they want right now, and it's rather *ndish. Unlike in the OTC, it is definitely getting winder there. I wonder how SBN is doing? Although I think xe''s further south of where the storm made landfall. Not sure what other OTTers are over there. Sending molpish thoughts to all in the path of the storm.

In somewhat RELATED news, it looks like in bsta it will soon be time to PANIC!